Weekly 101 (3/6/12)

First Tuesday of the month? You know what that means!

There's a free monthly New York City Beekeeper's Association meeting tonight!

March 6th
Beekeeping in Kenya

New York Times photographer Andrew Sullivan and Cecilia Lee, along with NYCBA's Norm and Andrew Coté, will present a Power Point presentation and discussion on their January 2012 beekeeping trip to Africa, where they worked with different tribal beekeepers within the Rift Valley, and a stingless bee along the coast during this Bees Without Borders trip.

www.nyc-bees.org

As always, it's being held at the Seafarers & International House, 123 East 15th Street, and starts at 7PM.

Weekly 101 (10/4/11)

It's that time of the month again.

Yeah.

First Tuesday of the month.

That means it's time for... A MEETING WITH THE NYC BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION! Hooray!

Michael Leung is the founder and creative director of HK Honey - an organisation of Hong Kong beekeepers, artists and designers that aim to communicate the value of bees and benefits of locally produced honey.

Michael will be sharing his stories of how he became Hong Kong's first urban beekeeper, showing us how he mixes beekeeping with design and how he markets and brands his honey and beekeeping related products in Hong Kong.

www.hkhoney.org

Tuesday, October 4th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

OH YEAH.

I've been seeing a lot of Michael lately; he's been hanging out with my friends Meg Paska, the Brooklyn Homesteader, and Chase Emmons, the head beekeeper of the Brooklyn Grange. He was a huge help at the NYC Honey Festival. This is going to be a really interesting talk, and while I am sorry that I cannot make it, you should show up and tell him that Tim sent you.

DO IT FOR ME, WILL YOU!?


But have no fear, for even if you must miss this sweet meeting, you can always come join me for my FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTION at the Added Value Community Farm in Red Hook, this Saturday at 11AM.

Taken with actual film.
None of that instagram crap here.
c2011, Michael Leung

I won't tell you what is going to happen, but I will tell you that it will be exciting either way. YES SIRREE BOB!  My car is in the shop, so I will be chauffeured by my lovely assistant, Emily Vaughn.  You'll get to meet her!  Ask her questions!  See her play with bees!  EXCITING!

I'll be there bright and early, rip-roarin' to go, and I'll start the talk and demo at 11AM or SOON THEREAFTER. Be on time! Get there early! Get your hands dirty on the farm! The demo will take place during open volunteer hours, so stick around afterwards! YES!

P.S. DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231, and I'll be starting the inspection at 11AM on Saturday, October 8th.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
R to 4th Ave/9th St. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook/IKEA on 9th st. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.

Weekly 101 (9/2/11)

First, a message from Meg Paska

Hey Everyone!

Happy Friday! I'm very glad to report that everyone at Newton Farm was kept safe from the destructive, deadly flooding in Greene County caused by Irene this week. There was quite a bit of flooding at the farm but Lynn, Cindy and Co were able to salvage a ton of produce. Beyond that, we are fortunate that our farm is situated on very well drained soil so we expect many of the root crops to be just fine.

I am writing because I just received a call from Lynn that she will be back in BK with a HUGE haul of produce that we will need to sell ASAP! Please come by the Renegade CSA to purchase some and support the farm. We will be on N11th street near Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, situated behind The Bedford (a restaurant and bar that serves our produce). We'll be out on the stoop drinking wine and marveling at how great it is to be alive!

We will also have with us:
- LOADS of heirloom tomatoes
- wonderful, crisp cucumbers
- tender collards
- massive bins of fresh herbs
- heirloom squash
- sweet corn
- potatoes
- beans
- soybean free, organic eggs

If you purchase any of our $20 CSA bags in the past and would like to pick one up tonight, bring a tote bag with you and we will honor that arrangement. It will include a half dozen eggs, and an assortment of greens, veggies and herbs.

It is also worth noting that there are many other farms in the area that were far less fortunate than we were. Please consider checking out this link on how you can help farmers and residents effected by the devastation Irene caused. Clothing, supplies, non-perishable food and monetary donations are all needed to help the families and businesses that have lost everything because of the flooding this week. We will have a box for clothing and non-perishable donations that will be dropped off by our farmers upon our return to the farm.

Thank you for your time and we hope to see many of you this evening!

Lynn is great, and so is Newton farm, so you should come out TONIGHT, say 'Hi!' and support local, healthy, sustainable, organic agriculture and beekeeping. Upstate New York took all the shit from Irene that we didn't, so come and lend a hand!


If you can't make it tonight, you should come out to the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm tomorrow for a FREE public hive inspection. The bees survived Irene, and so I'm going to be doing my first post-hurricane inspection, making sure that everyone is healthy, happy, and productive. I'll also be moving the hives back to their regular stands, so I could use some help lifting because I am a giant weakling.

Feel free to bring your own beekeeping gear and actively participate in the inspection. I love hosting guest beekeepers of all ages and experiences!

If you can, you should plan to stick around and help out at the farm after the inspection! They got hit pretty hard by Irene and could use all the hands they can get to help clean up and get the farm productive again. Hope to see you there!

P.S. DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231, and I'll be starting the inspection at 11AM.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

Finally, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting a free beekeeping talk on Tuesday, September 6th.

Welcome back bee lovers!

Join the NYCBA on September 6th at the usual place at 7PM. This month's speaker is NYPD's beekeeper, Tony "Bees" Planakis. Tony will regale us with his tellings of life as NYPD's beekeeper. From the 1970's when Tony started keeping bees with his father in Connecticut after the two of them spent a summer in Crete learning about beekeeping, which was a family tradition for the Planakis clan. Tony kept up with the bees as a teenager, and after a stint in the army, joined the NYPD and continued to work bees, large and small scale, until the present day. Most recently Tony has enjoyed some high profile sting operations in Chinatown and Little Italy, where he has captured swarms from mailboxes and lampposts, sometimes with some help from various NYCBA regulars.

Also, Honeydrop (www.Honeydrop.com) will be providing honey based beverages for everybody, so, come thirsty and drink up.

One and all always welcome in our urban hive.

Tuesday, September 6th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

I probably won't be able to make it since I have to pick up my CSA, but it should be a really interesting talk. Tony was the beekeeper who rescued the bees from the damaged colony in Fort Greene Park, as recently featured in the NY Times.

Also, it's free. Hooray!

The Aftermath

I am happy to report that all of the hives, including the ones living at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook, survived with no damage or flooding! As a reminder, here is how I prepped my hives for the oncoming hurricane.

First view of the farm Sunday morning.  Everything is standing!

Hives still secure and I don't see any water marks.  I removed the cinder blocks myself.

Bees!  Real live bees!  Flying!

We all got really lucky with this one, at least in the city. It could have been much worse. I was more or less resigned to losing some hives to flooding in low lying areas, but it seems that the seawalls held back the worst of it. Parts of the farm are under a couple of inches of water, but compared to the damage done by the tornado last year, I think that the bees (and the farm itself) will bounce back!

Standing water on the farm.  The pumpkins are still there!

So is the greenhouse!

Hooray!

Hives in Fort Greene hunkered down.  Tomato plants in the back looking pretty torn up.

Moving the hives back to their previous location and out of the  standing water on the roof.

There was also some excitement near my apiary location in Fort Greene. The storm had broken open a tree containing a large, healthy, feral bee colony in the south-east corner of the park. Since I was in the neighborhood to check on my hives anyways, I stopped by to lend a hand and watch. I didn't want the bees, I just wanted to see them get rescued. When I arrived, a couple of new beekeepers from the NYC Beekeeping Group and Andrew Cote of the NYC Beekeepers Association were already there and trying to figure out how to get at the bees and salvage the hive.

Majority of the hive up in the tree.  Healthy looking, 6-7 combs!

The bits of comb that fell with the branch.

One of the NYC Beekeeping Group members smoking the fallen section prior to cutting out the comb.

A small part of the hive had been pulled down with the fallen branch, but the vast majority of it remained 20-30 feet up in the tree. It was too high and windy to climb, so Andrew ended up calling Tony, the official beekeeper and bee-rescuer of the NYPD. Tony brought in the big toys; a cherry picker, chainsaw, rope, and more. Using the cherry picker, he cut the damaged branch containing the hive away from the tree and gently lowered it to the ground. He did a amazing job of it. I guess after 30 something years of keeping bees, he knows what he's doing.

Tony and his toys.

Lowering the hive to the ground.  Notice that the hive is wrapped with breathable cloth to prevent the bees from flying off.

Done!  Now on to their new home.

He and Cote sent the bagged hive home with the NYC Beekeeping Group members, who plan to combine with an existing hive that hadn't been doing well. Hopefully, with plenty of feeding, the combined hives will be able to make it through the winter!

After 5-6 hours of hive rescuing, we were treated with some dramatic lighting.

Weekly 101 (6/3/11)

Bees! You can meet them this Sunday! At the Eagle St. Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint!

2 PM - 3 PM

Beekeeping with Brooklyn Homesteader

Join Megan Paska of BrooklynHomesteader as she discusses the start up, set up and spring activity of our three beehives. Whether you're a beeginner (oh yes we did) or a beekeeper with Q's for our Miss Meg, you'll get 'em answered

It's free, and you can check out their greenmarket while you're there! Follow the link for more details!

Rooftopfarms.org


On Tuesday, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting one of their monthly lectures:

Beekeeping: Local and Global

NYCBA will have double the fun on Tuesday, June 7, when Peace Corps beekeepers Dan Carr and Lebohang Moore share their international beekeeping experience.

Dan Carr is a beekeeper at Stone Barns, an 80-acre nonprofit farm and education center located in Pocantico Hills, New York, 25 miles north of Manhattan.

Dan is a Colorado native and holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of Montana. After working on a Scottish dairy farm through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program, Dan spent three years in Malawi as an Agriculture/Environment Peace Corps volunteer. While in Malawi, he fell in love with keeping bees and confirmed the notion that he wanted to spend the rest of his life working the land. Dan will share photos from his Malawi beekeeping days, discuss how he cares for the bees and livestock at Stone Barns, and reveal what it's like working with a cool chef and environmentalist (we are fans of both Dan's, Carr and Barber).

We are also pleased to welcome Lebohang Moore, a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College (B.F.A., Dance Performance) who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and Peru. He now works in Zambia with Tiny Tim and Friends, an NGO that supports HIV-positive children through organic farming and an animal husbandry training program. Lebohang will talk to us about beekeeping in Bolivia and Zambia, including different markets, honey harvest methods, and use of traditional and new hives.


*Help sustain the NYCBA hive by renewing your annual membership. This event is $5 for non-members.*

Tuesday, June 7th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

$5? International Beekeeping? Totally worth it!


As for me, I'll be at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook this Saturday, giving another one of my FREE Public Hive Inspections!

Starting at 11, I will go through a basic inspection for each hive, starting with a lesson on lighting a smoker, moving on to visual inspections of the comb and a short talk on what to keep your eye out for (with examples!), and finishing up with another short talk on what we should expect to see in the next inspection.

DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231.

To get there by Subway:

A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

This event is taking place during the Farm's open volunteer hours, so anyone who comes out should consider sticking around for a while after the inspection to help out! I'll be sticking around for a while to answer any lingering questions and hang!

If you ARE feeling brave and want to help out, consider wearing light colored long pants and a collared shirt. I've got an extra veil I can lend out to particularly courageous volunteers!

Special thanks to Added Value for hosting this, and future, FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTIONS! They're doing great work, and are always looking for volunteers. If you'd like to help them out, check out their website here!

Weekly 101 (5/2/11)

Whuuuuuuuuut?! My internet is back!

Easter miracle!

And it's a well known fact that the only thing better than the internet is a CHEAP BEE EVENT!

Check it out:

From Bee to Bottle!

Join us on Tuesday, May 3rd for a special presentation on honey-based spirits.

Ed Tiedge honed his skills at a small winery and distillery in Cognac, France.

Today, StilltheOne distillery produces COMB vodka, COMB 9 gin, and COMB brandy.

Come hear Ed talk about his metamorphosis from hedge fund executive to spirit-maker, and learn how he transforms varietal honey into potent potables.

More about Ed and COMB vodka here.

*Help sustain the NYCBA hive by renewing your annual membership. This event is $5 for non-members.*

Tuesday, May 3
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street

NYC Beekeepers? Bees? Booze? (5) Bucks?

Oh snap.

Weekly 101 (4/5/11)

And back to our regularly scheduled programming, we have classes this week!

Two of them. Both of them tonight, actually.

For the beginners, the NYC Beekeeping Group is hosting one of their free winter course lectures tonight:

How To Build and Paint Your Hive, And Get Your Bees Into Their New Home
or
"Wooden? Where?"

The last few days have been a whirlwind getting equipment distributed so please forgive this late reminder about the class. Even if you got the hang of assembly at one of the pickup days, you may want to attend if you are getting bees for the first year, or for the second.

If you are getting a package and equipment in the Spring group order but have not picked up your equipment yet, do not fail to make arrangements with us as you need time to assemble and let paint dry before your bees arrive!

Tuesday evening we'll review & demonstrate equipment assembly, setup, and cover getting your package of bees into your hive.

We will also review what you'll need to watch for in the first few weeks after your package arrives.

If you are new this is a very good entry point as we begin the transition to hands on and field work, so please email if you want to begin learning with us and we will get you registered for the program and seated for Tuesday.
Everyone is welcome!

It's happening tonight at the Central Park Arsenal at 830 5th Ave, and it starts at 6.30. As always, RSVP with the group at their website, www.nycbeekeeping.com.

For the more adventurous or advanced beekeepers, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting a talk on small cell beekeeping:

Dear Bee Lovers,

Join us on April 5 for a presentation on small-cell beekeeping. NYCBA member and long-term naturalist and gardener Juliana Zinger will discuss the "natural cell" method of beekeeping as a component of organic, low-treatment techniques in mitigating the impact of Varroa mites.

Juliana is a Manhattan mom whose hives are located on Long Island’s North Shore. This spring, she will be increasing from one to three hives and will be converting to small-cell beekeeping on the two new hives. In other insect-related news, she and her family raise hundreds of praying mantises every year to support biodiversity in their garden.
See you at the meeting!

The meeting starts at 7 and is hosted at the Seafarers & International House at 123 East 15th Street. The meeting is free, membership in the Association is $20.

I can't help but mention that I am annoyed that YET AGAIN, the talks have been scheduled on the same night.

Come on guys. Can't we all just get along?